Tuesday, 30 June 2009

There is apparently a monster in White River in Arkansas. The locals have nick named it “Whitey” and it is said to has been seen in the area for over 150 years.

W. Haden Blackman’s “The Field Guide to North American Monsters” (Three Rivers Press; 1998 ) recounts the first known sighting by the local indigenous population : “…a large, barren island that would sporadically appear within the river.…one intrepid brave stepped atop the fleshy mound and suddenly spotted a large, ponderous head rising up from the land mass. Frightened, the brave leapt into his canoe and paddled toward shore, but the thrashing monster overturned his little boat. The brave barely survived, and the ‘island’ sank into the depths.”

Then during the Civil War, the White River Monster was blamed for overturning a loaded Confederate gunship. The description of Whitey is serpent like, 30 feet long with a spiny backbone. It makes a bellowing noise and described as having a dingy gray hide.Sightings of “Whitey” have been reported officially since 1915 but were sparse. George Mann claimed he saw the creature in 1915, and Mrs. Ethel Smith of Little Rock said that she had seen the monster in 1924.

In 1937, a farmer , Bramleltte Bateman claimed to have seen the animal several times. He capitalized on the sensation and set up a viewing area where he charged a 25¢ for a chance to see the monster. ( see link to newspaper article on this, end of post)

In September 1937 Bramlett Bateman signed an affidavit describing the sighting he had made in July.

...I saw something appear on the surface of the water... [I thought] it would be about 12 feet long and 4 or 5 feet wide.I did not see either head nor tail but it slowly rose to the surface and stayed in this position some five minutes... afterward on different occasions I have seen it move up and down the river, but I never have, at any time, been able to determine the full length or size of said monster.

After Bateman's report, three other local residents signed affidavits, saying that they had seen a similar monster, including a Mr Z.B. Reid. The following statement is from Reid's affidavit:

...there was a lot of foam and bubbles coming up in a circle about 30 feet in diameter some 300 feet from where we were standing. It did not come up there but appeared about 300 feet upstream. It looked like a large sturgeon or catfish. It went down in about two minutes...

Then 1966, three people fishing also saw Whitey, describing it as having a tail like a mermaid’s, a long body, arm-like flippers and a head shaped like a monkey’s.

In 1971, two men reported that they saw three-toed tracks along the muddy river banks, as well as in the trees near the river.The tracks measured 14 inches long and 8 inches wide, and had three clawed toes. In a grassy area was a depression, as if something large had stopped . And then the sightings began again when someone reported seeing a gray creature with a horn sticking out from its forehead. Other witnesses described it as having a spiny back twenty feet long. More reports of the monster in 1971 included an anonymous witness who said: It didn't really have scales but from where I was standing it looked as if the thing was peeling all over, but it was a smooth type of skin or flesh.

Then June 28 1971 ,Cloyce Warren and two friends were fishing in a boat near the NewportBridge.Warren later stated:

...This giant form rose to the surface and began moving in the middle of the river away from the boat. It was very long and gray colored... We had taken a little Polaroid Swinger with us to take pictures of the fish we caught. I grabbed the camera and managed to get a picture right before it submerged. It appeared to have a spiny backbone that stretched for 30 or more feet...

The last actual sighting appeared to be about four years ago when an anonymous Jonesboro woman reported seeing the monster twice

In 1973,following all the 1971 reports and sightings, the legislature signed into law a bill by state Senator Robert Harvey, creating the White River Monster Refuge along the White River, which would protect the monster. In August 1980, two bull sharks were found dead on the riverbank near Newport, starting conjecture about the monster possibly being a sturgeon, or oversized alligator, Roy P. Mackal draws the conclusion that the White River was home to a stranded Mirounga angustirostris, or northern elephant seal.These seals reach lengths of up to 22 feet and the male of the species have "trunks" on their snouts which may look like the "horn" reported as being seen by some witnesses. However I doubt an Elephant Seal would live for over a hundred years. They are magnificent beasts, I saw one as a child and it was enormous but looked very sad in it’s zoo home. So monster or fish or more hysteria? Perhaps it will appear again and more photos and videos may appear for scrutiny.

Monday, 29 June 2009

I love historical accounts of cryptids so have one below for you and also a link where you can read the whole book.

The following is the article in the Inverness Courier:—

“We are glad to see that the two gentlemen who favoured us last autumn with an account of what they believed to be a strange animal seen off the west coast, Inverness-shire, have published in the Zoologist, a monthly journal of natural history, a careful description of the creature which they saw, and which seems to resemble the engravings of what is called the Norwegian sea-serpent. We subjoin the magazine article entire. There is such a dread of ridicule in appearing publicly in company with this mysterious and disreputable monster, that we must commend the boldness of the two clergymen in putting their names to the narrative; especially as we observe that other observers have not been so courageous, and that they have been obliged to give some of their information anonymously.“The huge serpent, if serpent it may be called, invariably appears in still warm weather, and in no other. There are certain Norwegian fjords and narrow seas which it frequents, and it is scarcely ever seen in the open sea. In the present case, the limit in which the animal has been seen on our coast, is Lochduich to the north and the Sound of Mull to the south, only about a fifth of the space between Cape Wrath and the Mull of Kintyre; and it is in that part it should be most looked for. We beg to draw the attention of our readers on the West Coast to the fact, now established on indubitable evidence, of the supposed animal having been seen there last year, and to the possibility of its appearing again in similar weather this year. If it chances to turn up once more, some full and accurate account of the phenomenon would certainly be most desirable.”

Appearance of an animal, believed to be that which is called the Norwegian Sea-serpent, on the Western Coast of Scotland, in August 1872, by the Rev. John McRae, Minister of Glenelg, Invernessshire, and the Rev. David Twopeny, Vicar of Stockbury, Kent.On the 20th of August 1872 we started from Glenelg in a small cutter, the Leda, for an excursion to Lochourn. Our party consisted, besides ourselves, of two ladies, F. and K., a gentleman, G. B., and a Highland lad. Our course lay down the Sound of Sleat, which on that side divides the Isle of Skye from the mainland, the average breadth of the channel in that part being two miles.It was calm and sunshiny, not a breath of air, and the sea perfectly smooth. As we were getting the cutter along with oars we perceived a dark mass about two hundred yards astern of us, to the north. While we were looking at it with our glasses (we had three on board) another similar black lump rose to the left of the first, leaving an interval between; then another and another followed, all in regular order. We did not doubt its being one living creature: it moved slowly across our wake, and disappeared. Presently the first mass, which was evidently the head, reappeared, and was followed by the rising of the other black lumps, as before. Sometimes three appeared, sometimes four, five, or six, and then sank again. When they rose, the head appeared first, if it had been down, and the lumps rose after it in regular order, beginning always with that next the head, and rising gently; but when they sank, they sank altogether rather abruptly, sometimes leaving the head visible.

It gave the impression of a creature crooking up its back to sun itself. There was no appearance of undulation; when the lumps sank, other lumps did not rise in the intervals between them. The greatest number we counted was seven, making eight with head, as shown in sketch No.1 [two engravings are given]. The parts were separated from each other by intervals of about their own length, the head being rather smaller and flatter than the rest, and the nose being very slightly visible above the water; but we did not see the head raised above the surface either this or the next day, nor could we see the eye. We had no means of measuring the length with any accuracy; but taking the distance from the centre of one lump to the centre of the next to be six feet, and it could scarcely be less, the whole length of the portion visible, including the intervals submerged, would be forty-five feet. Presently, as we were watching the creature, it began to approach us rapidly, causing a great agitation in the sea. Nearly the whole of the body, if not all of it, had now disappeared, and the head advanced at a great rate in the midst of a shower of fine spray, which was evidently raised in some way by the quick movement of the animal—it did not appear how—and not by spouting. F. was alarmed and retreated to the cabin, crying out that the creature was coming down upon us. When within about a hundred yards of us it sank and moved away in the direction of Syke, just under the surface of the water, for we could trace its course by the waves it raised on the still sea to the distance of a mile or more. After this it continued at intervals to show itself, careering about at a distance, as long as we were in that part of the Sound; the head and a small part only of the body being visible on the surface; but we did not again, on that day, see it so near nor so well as at first.At one time F. and K. and G. B. saw a fin sticking up at a little distance back from the head, but neither of us were then observing. On our return the next day we were again becalmed on the north side of the opening of Lochourn, where it is about three miles wide, the day warm and sunshiny as before. As we were dragging slowly along in the afternoon the creature again appeared over towards the south side, at a greater distance than we saw it the first day. It now showed itself in three or four rather long lines, as in the sketch No. 2, and looked considerably longer than it did the day before; as nearly as we could compute, it looked at least sixty feet in length. Soon it began careering about, showing but a small part of itself, as on the day before, and appeared to be going up Lochourn. Later in the afternoon, when we were still becalmed in the mouth of Lochourn, and by using the oars had nearly reached the island of Sandaig, it came rushing past us about a hundred and fifty yards to the south, on its return from Lochourn. It went with great rapidity, its black head only being visible through the clear sea, followed by a long trail of agitated water. As it shot along, the noise of its rush through the water could be distinctly heard on board. There were no organs of motion to be seen, nor was there any shower of spray as on the day before, but merely such a commotion in the sea as its quick passage might be expected to make. Its progress was equable and smooth, like that of a log towed rapidly. For the rest of the day, as we worked our way home northwards through the Sound of Sleat, it was occasionally within sight of us until nightfall, rushing about at a distance, as before, and showing only its head, and a small part of its body on the surface. It seemed on each day to keep about us, and as we were always then rowing, we were inclined to think it perhaps might be attracted by the measured sound of the oars. Its only exit in this direction to the north was by the narrow Strait of Kylerhea, dividing Skye from the mainland, and only a third of a mile wide, and we left our boat, wondering whether this strange creature had gone that way or turned back again to the south. We have only to add to this narrative of what we saw ourselves, the following instances of its being seen by other people, of the correctness of which we have no doubt. The ferrymen on each side of Kylerhea saw it pass rapidly through on the evening of the 21st, and heard the rush of the water; they were surprised, and thought it might be a shoal of porpoises, but could not comprehend their going so quickly.

Finlay McRae, of Bundaloch, in the parish of Kintail, was within the mouth of Lochourn on the 21st, with other men in his boat, and saw the creature at about the distance of one hundred and fifty yards. Two days after we saw it, Alexander Macmillan, boat-builder at Dornie, was fishing in a boat in the entrance of Lochduich, half-way between Druidag and Castledonan, when he saw the animal, near enough to hear the noise, and see the ripple it made in rushing along in the sea. He says that what seemed its head was followed by four or more lumps, or "half-rounds," as he calls them, and that they sometimes rose and sometimes sank altogether. He estimated its length at not less than between sixty and eighty feet. He saw it also on two subsequent days in Lochduich. On all these occasions his brother, Farquhar, was with him in the boat, and they were both much alarmed, and pulled to the shore in great haste. A lady at Duisdale, in Skye, a place overlooking the part of the Sound which is opposite the opening of Lochourn, said that she was lookingout with a glass when she saw a strange object on the sea, which appeared like eight seals in a row. This was j ust about the time that we saw it. We were also informed that about the same time it was seen from the island of Eigg, between Eigg and the mainland, about twenty miles to the south-west of the opening of Lochourn. We have not permission to mention the names in these two last instances. JOHN MCRAE.DAVID TWOPENY.Extract from Mythical Monsters by Charles Gould 1886

Sunday, 28 June 2009

There have been numerous sightings of Bigfoot type creatures in Illinois, so after looking at the mud monster in an earlier post I thought I would out some together

The earliest sighting that I came across was in 1912. A woman named Beaulah Schroat reported that she and her brothers had often seen a huge, hairy creature near their home in Effingham. Then a "huge gorilla" was reported as seen in the woods near Elizabeth in July 1929.

In 1941, the Reverend Harpole was hunting squirrels near Mount Vernon and encountered a large creature that "looked something like a baboon". He struck it with his rifle and fired a warning shot that sent it scurrying back into the underbrush.

In 1962 a grey coloured creature was spotted by Steven Collins and Robert Earle . The creature vanished into the woods and the witnesses told the local newspaper that it was "like no other animal we had ever seen before."

In September 1965, four teenagers were parked in a car near an undeveloped area outside of Decatur called Montezuma Hills. It was a secluded area used by locals as a "lover’s lane". The young couples were sitting in the car when a black, man-like shape approached the vehicle. The creature seemed massive and frightened the teenagers badly. They drove off in a panic but after dropping off their girlfriends the two males returned to the area for another look. They once again saw the monster and it walked up to their car as though it were curious. They were too scared to get out, but even with the windows rolled up, they could smell the monster’s horrible smell. Then they summoned the police, who searched but did not find anything.

In 1968 there was another sighting near Chittyville . Two teenagers Tim Bullock and Barbara Smith, were driving north of town on August 11 when they spotted a 10-foot tall monster that was covered with black hair and had a round face. It threw dirt at their car and they left to summon the police. When the authorities returned, they found a large depression in the grass that was apparently a nest.

Same year in July , a couple driving near Weldon Springs State Park, outside of Clinton, saw what looked like a huge "bear" in the river. Later, a policeman and a conservation officer found tracks along the water‘s edge that definitely did not belong to a bear. They were reportedly very large and human-like.

In 1972, there were reports coming in from the Pekin and Peoria areas. In May, Randy Emmert, and some friends, reported a large, hairy creature near Cole Hollow Road. This monster was 8-10 feet tall and whitish in color. The witnesses stated that it made a loud, screeching sound and they suspected that it was living in a hole beneath an abandoned house. It also left very unusual tracks, having only three toes on each foot. Others also reported seeing a monster and it became known as "Cohomo", short for the "Cole Hollow Road Monster". This lead to local police logged more than 200 calls about the monster, including one where the creature destroyed a fence. The police departments were naturally sceptical, but the calls kept coming in. Cohomo was seen again on July 27 as East Peoria Police reported that he was spotted by "two reliable citizens" swimming in the Illinois River. They got close enough to him to know that he smelled awful and looked like a "cross between an ape and a caveman". That appears to be the last sighting of Cohomo..

In 1973, three men who were walking along the SangamonRiver near Decatur saw a large, hairy man that walked like an ape. The creature disappeared into the underbrush.

In 1990, a woman living in a mobile home near Eldon reported to Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department she heard noises, noticed a bad smell, and saw a creature about 10 feet tall and about 400 pounds. A deputy investigated and found impressions big enough to place both his feet in. Just two days later, an 8-year-old girl and her mother described a creature 8 feet tall with dark brown, frizzy hair and standing on two feet rummaging through a trash pile near their house.

In 1996, a man living in the Vian Bottoms, about two to three miles north of the Arkansas River, saw a black figure moving in and out of the trees. He said it looked to be about 8 feet tall, huge, muscular build, with very long stringy hair, and walked upright on two legs.

In July 2000 in Essex, Illinois ,Andrew Souligne was driving into a local cemetery one night when a large, hairy shape walked out in front of the car. The creature froze in the headlights and turned towards the car, apparently stunned by the bright lights from the vehicle. Souligne (and the other passenger of the car) were pretty shocked themselves and the driver immediately put the car into reverse and back away from the monster. Moments later, the ape loped into the woods and vanished.

In 2001 a woman driving near GreenLeafLake , saw something cross the road in front of her. She said it was about 6-1/2 feet tall, with long, dark hair except for the face area, and had a thick build. She described the creature further as looking “like a person with hair.”

In October of 2005, Tahlequah 911 received a call at about 6 a.m. one morning from a man near the Welling bridge who said he had just seen what he believed to be Bigfoot. It was 7 feet tall and hairy, and from the anatomy it appeared to be female.

In July 2008, a woman living in an area known as Murphy’s Hill, near 14-Mile Creek, said she was receiving a curious and regular visitor that was “getting bolder” and “coming out in the daytime.” She said one “Sunday afternoon the wind shifted, and we smelled it.” She said she went into the yard and found the door to her dogs’ pen broken almost in half. And, that the dogs get really quiet when this thing is around.

So Illinois, a haven for types of Bigfoot? There does seem to be an element of hysteria in some of the accounts, especially the 200 calls the police received in one day. But with that many sightings, even if only a third are reasonably sound, it is still a lot of sightings, whether mistaken identity or not, or something strange in Illinois.

Saturday, 27 June 2009

The first recorded sighting of the so called killer Kangaroos was in RichmondWisconsin in 1899. Many people have since reported seeing ‘carnivorous kangaroos' in both urban and rural areas through out the USA.. They are described as being between 4 feet and 6 feet tall with glowing eyes .However Kangaroos are normally vegetarian.

In 1934 several witnesses including a man of the church saw a Kangaroo, it was said to have been seen fleeing the scene carrying a sheep.
From 1957 to 1967, in Coon Rapids, Minnesota kangaroos were reported by numerous eye witnesses . They named the creature "Big Bunny".

In 1974, two police officers in Chicago answered a call from a resident who claimed that a kangaroo was sitting on his front porch. The police had a good laugh until a few hours later when they actually had the five-foot high animal cornered in a dark alley. One of the officers decided that this nonsense had to stop and he was going to take it in. He decided to handcuff it. With this, the kangaroo suddenly started screeching and became vicious. It punched the officers in the face and kicked them in the shins. The officers backed off and awaited reinforcements. Additional squad cars arrived and the kangaroo hopped down the street, jumped a fence and vanished. Kangaroos are known to kick as a defence and the kick is very strong. There have been very few reports of them actually killing anyone though.

This seemed to set off a wave of sightings in Illinois and Wisconsin. A newspaper boy saw it after the creature was almost hit by a car near Belmont and Oak Park. It apparently just hopped away. It was also reported to be seen in Chicago’s Schiller Woods

.Then it was spotted again by a police officer in Plano, outside the city limits. He stated that the kangaroo jumped about 8 feet from a field onto the road. The following night it appeared again. Half an hour after the last Plano sighting, a kangaroo was reported 50 miles away, in Chicago.

On November 3rd, the kangaroo was reported by Frank Kocherver in a forest preserve.

Then November 6th , a truck driver near Lansing just missed hitting a kangaroo.

In July 1975, a woman was travelling down the highway near DaltonCity and saw a kangaroo alongside the road. She watched it as it hopped away into a cornfield and disappeared.

Brian Joseph related a peculiar sighting atThe Daily Grail, which occurred in Northern California in 1981 after several evenings where “screaming” had been heard in the woods nearby:

I caught sight of something in a clearing about 200 feet away from me. I thought that it was a deer sitting down the same way a dog sits down. My dog caught sight of it the same time I did and started to run towards it. Thats when I realized that it was not a deer, it took huge hops, looked like a kangaroo and let out a repeated burst of the sound that I had been hearing for months. The dog chased and the thing hop/leaped and turned. The dog followed a bit into a brush area and then came back out, the same as other times that the sound had been heard. This was in the days before the internet so trying to find out information on it was not easy. I tried to find out what type of sounds kangaroos make and anything I found never mentioned a bird like noise or anything like that. I also wondered if it was somehow associated with a UFO that myself and another person had witnessed in the area in late 1980.

The strange noises he had heard seemed to lead him to refer to the creature as being a “screaming kangaroo”.

An unusual sighting in Bay St. Louis has some residents imaging they might be living in Australia. The Bay St. Louis Animal Control Officer has received three calls of a Kangaroo sighting this week. All three callers say they saw a kangaroo about four feet tall, hopping around the area of Seminary Drive and Highway 90 on Thursday. When our cameras went to the area, we saw no animals. The animal control officer is investigating the sightings, and says it's possible someone owned an exotic pet that got away recently or possibly during the storm. But so far no one has reported a Kangaroo missing.

So what are these creatures? Well the sensible answer would be that they are escapees from a zoos or private collections. The fact they described as eating meat is peculiar. No kangaroos have been reported missing, allegedly, but then would you want the authorities coming to investigate you if you reported one lost or escaped? So it may that some are escaped from places but not reported. The only evidence seems to be eye witness testimony.( that’s nothing new in cryptozoology is it?) There is supposedly a photo which was taken in April 1978, in Wisconsin which is said to show a slumping figure that looks like a kangaroo, but I have not been able to find a copy of it . Someone reading this may have seen one ,if so please comment. Kangaroos have been meat eaters in the past (10 to 20 million years ago according to fossils found in Australia in 2006) but it is unlikely any survived in the USA until this century, so unless someone has been playing JurassicPark, they will be chalked up to escapees from a zoo or mass hysteria.

Friday, 26 June 2009

A story appeared in 1973, in Murphysboro, Illinois, when residents in a small town on the banks of a river reported seeing a monster..
In June 1973 a courting couple sitting in their car heard shrieks coming from the woods nearby and then a huge creature covered with light brown hair and what appeared to be mud, came out of the woods and lumbered toward their vehicle. The couple immediately drove off and went to the police. Then two teenagers saw the creature said it smelled of foul river slime. Workers at a nearby fairground saw the strange beast staring at some tethered ponies. Murphysboro police chief Toby Berger ordered a search, but all that was found was a trail of crushed grass, broken trees, and gobs of black slime.
This creature is described as a swamp monster and the reports of sightings say it is a lumbering hulk, roughly 8 feet tall covered with fur that is a brownish colour which is matted with mud and pieces of plants and leaves. The creatures eyes are also said toglow a pinkish-red colour. The newspapers continue to tell the story:

MURPHYSBORO - There are two dates from 1973 in Murphysboro that still leave some haunted - or at least curious. The two police reports dated June 25 and June 26 relate the sighting of an unknown creature. It was in those two evenings that reports came in of a loud, tall, white-haired creature caked with mud being spotted in the woods on the outskirts of town near the Big Muddy River.
It was later dubbed the Big Muddy Monster because of its indefinable features and mysterious presence. It set off a media frenzy after the initial reports on those two days, said former patrolman and retired Murphysboro police chief Ron Manwaring.
"(Those) are the most copied, most looked-at reports in the history of the department," he said .Letters came streaming in from those as far away as California and New York wanting a piece of information or a piece of the prize. But the prize is still elusive.
There are only two cases that remain unsolved in Murphysboro, Manwaring said, but after 32 years the case on the Big Muddy Monster still remains open.
"It's an unsolved case because I can't tell you what it was," he said.
Having retired three years ago and having not seen the Big Muddy Monster police reports in years, Manwaring is still able to recount those haunting evenings as if they had happened just yesterday. And he recounts the stories as he would if writing the police report all over again.
"There were numerous sightings and people interviewed," he began.The first report came in just before midnight on June 25. A couple had been "parked" near the boat dock on the southwestern edge of RiversidePark, next to the woods. The two, who were not married, said they were in the car when they heard a loud screaming sound in the wooded area and observed a "large creature approximately 7 feet tall. The creature appeared to have light-colored hair matted with mud. The creature appeared to be walking on two legs and was proceeding toward his car" according to the report. Manwaring said the two came to the police department and risked exposing their indiscretions because they were so frightened by what they saw ."There was no advantage for them to come up and report this," he said.

Police searched the area with flashlights and spotted tracks in the mud approximately 3 to 4 inches deep, 10 to 12 inches long, and 3 inches wide. While officers were searching the area they reported hearing another scream coming from the woods. But nothing could be found. The next evening Manwaring said he was an officer on duty when a call came in from the Westwood Hills subdivision that two teenagers were sitting on the back porch when they spotted a tall, white-haired, hairy creature in a field just to the edge of the woods. Manwaring said officers responded and while they were at the scene, a neighbor said his 5-year-old son had just come in 10 minutes earlier saying he had seen something on the edge of the woods. "My partner and I decided to go down to the area where they saw this thing," Manwaring said. He started traveling a footpath through the bushes and noticed a stench and a slimy film on the tree branches. "I saw this substance and smelled the smell myself," he said. Jerry Nellis, an officer with the Carbondale Police Department at the time and a trained dog-handler, was called to the scene. The dog tracked the scent all the way to a barn, but once it got to the barn, the dog refused to go inside. Nellis said in his humble opinion it was a bear. "We never got a good view of any tracks," Nellis said. "Is there a Sasquatch? I don't know - it makes for a good story, though."

Manwaring said people initially thought it was a prank, but after all this time no one has come forward to say so. And after the hype and hysteria was over with, he said he heard two more reports that seemed similar to those in June of 1973. One came in early July of that same year. But what haunts him more is a report he heard from a man who lived in the Westwood Hills area before it was developed into a neighborhood in the 1950s. Manwaring said the man told him he was out working in his garden one evening when he spotted a creature that was similar to later reports of the Big Muddy Monster. "I never did see it; but in my mind I feel those people really did see something," Manwaring said. "I guess it just remains a mystery.

So was this a rather muddy bigfoot or a bear covered in mud? I would have thought people who lived in bear territory would be able to recognise a bear muddy or not, but when in a state of shock we often misread what we see. No more sightings seem to have occurred, which in itself is intriguing. Most bigfoot sightings seem to occur in clusters over a period of time, this seems like a once only, unless anyone reading this knows of any more?

Thursday, 25 June 2009

Well I know the climate is changing but didn’t think it was that warm:

A couple from Cornwall have photographed a prairie dog while they were on a moor in Cornwall. Linda and Godfrey Stevens were on the Goss Moor trail when they spotted a small furry creature that they could not recognise. Godfrey Stevens said: "We didn't expect to see anything like that." Newquay Zoo confirmed the picture was that of a prairie dog. They are mammals from the squirrel family and are from the grasslands of North America. Mr Stevens said: "We expected to see wild flowers. It was a real surprise for us." John Meeks from Newquay Zoo said it was a black-tailed prairie dog "without a doubt".

Came across this on my morning stroll through the internet:
Scientists to investigate Bigfoot sighting in IndiaIndian authorities promise further study into dubious claims
mongabay.com
June 10, 2007

Indian authorities will conduct a "scientific study" to examine claims by villagers of Indo-Asian News Service

Villagers in the jungles of the Indian northeastern state of Meghalaya claim to have evidence of Bigfoot or Sasquatch, reports the Indo-Asian News Service. Government authorities said they will conduct a "scientific study" to examine the purported sightings near the border with Bangladesh.
'A team of wildlife officials and other experts would conduct a study to find out if there is any truth in claims made by locals about sighting some hairy giants similar to the elusive Bigfoot,' Samphat Kumar, the district magistrate of West Garo Hills, told IANS.
IANS reports that half-a-dozen Garo villagers claim to have seen the beast in separate sightings over the past three weeks.
'The sight was frightening - two adults and two smaller ones, huge and bulky, furry, heads looked as if they were wearing caps, and their colour was somewhat blackish brown,' IANS quoted Wallen Sangma, a 40-year-old farmer, as saying. Sangma claims to have seen hour of the creatures "in a thickly forested area near village Rongcekgre, about 350 km from the state capital Shillong" while looking for firewood. Known locally as the Mande Burung (jungle man), Bigfoot figures widely in rural fork lore around the world: Sasquatch in North America, Yeti in the Himalayas, Yowie in Australia, and Hantu jarang gigi in southeast Asia. While most scientists dismiss reported sightings, saying that it would be nearly impossible for such a such creature to avoid wider detection, the efforts to ascertain the existence of such a creature are not the first time a government in the region has acted on behalf of a cryptozoological entity. Bhutan created Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary—650 square kilometers of temperate rhododendron and pine forests in the eastern part of the country—specifically to protect the habitat of the yeti, better known as "Bigfoot" or "Sasquatch" in other parts of the world. Nevertheless, Bigfoot sightings often crop up when areas are looking to promote tourism, as was the case in early 2006 in Malaysia, when teams of scientists were sent into the rainforests of Johor state Malaysia in search of the mythical beast. Following the trend, the latest sightings in India are being looking into by the Achik Tourism Society

'We have taken photographs and video images of the footprints of the creature and their nesting. The footprints we shot were as big as 13 to 15 inches long,' Dipu Marak, general secretary of the Achik Tourism Society, told the Indo-Asian News Service.

'Prima facie, the descriptions given by people who saw the creatures point to Mande Burung. There is no trace of any gorilla or unidentified animals inhabiting this region,' said T.K. Marak, president of the Achik Tourism Society and a zoology lecturer at the Tura government college in West Garo Hills.
Achik Tourism Society says the "mystical monster" feeds on "wild berries, bananas, plantain tree shoots, barks and roots" and construct "a nest kind of thing using thatch and leaves with no roofs-just walls", according to Dipu Marak.

Wednesday, 24 June 2009

Loch Ness monster of the Vosges' threatens French village

French police are on the hunt for an elusive creature dubbed the "Loch Ness monster of the Vosges" after residents have reported several sightings of a crocodile in a local pond. Published: 4:42PM BST 21 Jun 2009

Xertigny, a village of some 3,000 inhabitants in the Vosges region in eastern France, has been transfixed by the unexplained sightings. Villagers tried to lure the beast out of the water by placing a chicken on the bank of the pond, but their overtures have failed to attract the animal so far. Local authorities are so worried that they are considering draining the pond after a special sonar device failed to clarify the situation."We have been around the pond several times and you can't really say if anything is there," Bruno Aime, vice-president of a local anglers' association, told France Info radio."I think it's carp but it could also be a caiman of about 1.5 metres. The equipment doesn't let you see the difference between a pike of a metre long and a caiman of 1.5 metres," he told France Info radio. Crocodiles are found only in zoos and parks in France. The local Est Republicain newspaper has covered the chase in a special blog that includes hour-by-hour updates and footage of the search but the only animal it has caught on film so far is a small mammal resembling a water vole. See original story here:

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mysterious creatures roam the countryside,what is the secret of the horror tunnel and what are the modern day witches up to with the fifth reich? our Friends from the book Dark Ness once again meet cryptids and danger . s

About Me

Mother, author, cat lover, amateur cryptozoologist, cook and bottle washer, some times lover, single parent,middle aged,a mad woman without an attic, red wine and chocolate lover.Now housebound due to ill health so an armchair researcher.Too wheezy to sit in a hide and watch for cryptids anymore lol.Have now taken up crafting when I feel able.I now have a Fiction book out on amazon Kindle Dark Ness by Tabitca Cope set in, you guessed it, Loch Ness with monsters , murder , myth and magic.